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Mariners Hire Paul Davis As Pitching Coach

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The Mariners announced today that they have hired Paul Davis as their new pitching coach. Previously, the club decided not to bring back Mel Stottlemyre in that role.

Davis had been with the Cardinals organization, most recently serving as their manager of pitching analytics. This will be his first experience on a MLB coaching staff. In the team’s press release, GM Jerry Dipoto praised Davis for his “exceptional understanding of the mechanics of pitching, as well as the balance to make evidence-based decisions.”

Astros Claim Chris Herrmann

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The Astros have claimed catcher/outfielder Chris Herrmann off waivers from the Mariners, per an announcement from the Houston organization.

Herrmann, 30, is eligible for arbitration and projected by MLBTR to receive a $1.5MM salary. Whether he makes it through the non-tender deadline on the Houston roster remains to be seen, but he’ll obviously be considered as a possibility.

Soon to turn 31, Herrmann has had an interesting career to this point. Capable of lining up behind the dish, in the corner outfield, and at first base, he can be an interesting roster piece when he delivers enough offensive punch.

Herrmann was a light-hitting reserve catcher with the Twins before landing with the Diamondbacks and turning in a big (albeit brief) showing with the bat in 2016. That all disappeared in the following season. In the 2018 campaign, though, he hit well at Triple-A and then turned in a solid .237/.322/.421 output in 87 plate appearances with Seattle.

Mariners Outright Erasmo Ramirez, Nick Vincent

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TODAY: Ramirez and fellow righty Nick Vincent have each been outrighted after clearing waivers. Both players have elected free agency.

The 32-year-old Vincent has appeared in over sixty contests in each of the past three seasons with Seattle. He owns a cumulative 3.62 ERA with 8.5 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9. Though Vincent still seems likely to spend plenty of time in a major-league pen in 2019, his projected $3.5MM arbitration salary was obviously deemed too steep.

YESTERDAY, 8:34pm: Morosi now tweets that Ramirez is indeed already going through the waiver process.

8:24pm: Right-hander Erasmo Ramirez is “likely” to be removed from the Mariners’ 40-man roster either via waiver claim or by clearing outright waivers and electing free agency, reports MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (on Twitter). That would suggest that Ramirez, 28, has already been placed on outright waivers, as both of those outcomes involve the team attempting to pass him through the waiver process.

Ramirez has split his career to date between the Mariners and Rays organizations, enjoying success at times with both team but struggling mightily in the most recent season. The Nicaraguan-born righty rejoined the Mariners in 2017 after being traded back to Seattle from Tampa Bay and threw quite well for his original club down the stretch. The 2018 campaign, however, was another story entirely. Ramirez was clobbered for a 6.50 ERA in 45 1/3 innings, allowing a stunning 14 home runs in that brief time while working with a diminished strikeout rate.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected Ramirez to earn $4.4MM via the arbitration process this winter, even spite of those alarming struggles, making him a clear non-tender candidate. Rather than waiting until the non-tender deadline at the end of the current month, it seems the Mariners are opting to remove Ramirez now. If he clears, which seems likely, he’ll elect free agency, and the early outright will have granted him some additional time to explore the open market in search of a new opportunity.

For all of Ramirez’s struggles he’s not far removed at all from being a useful big league arm. In 385 1/3 innings from 2015-17, the righty worked to a 3.97 ERA with 7.0 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9. Ramirez was bothered by a teres major strain in 2018, spending more than three months on the disabled list with that injury, so with a return to health in 2019 he could be an affordable rotation option or long reliever for a new organization.

Mariners, Marco Gonzales Agree To Two-Year Deal

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7:14pm: Heyman tweets that Gonzales agreed to drop his grievance, which could have increased his service time and, consequently, his earnings, in exchange for a current salary greater than that of a typical player with his service time.

6:13pm: According to Heyman, part of the explanation for the abnormally high value of Gonzales’ deal is the existence of a previous grievance from his time with the Cardinals, which is still pending (Twitter link). The grievance reportedly concerns the timing of a demotion. The outcome of this dispute may alter Gonzales’ service time and therefore his earning power, which would explain the $1.9MM figure.

4:40pm: The Mariners have agreed to a highly unusual two-year contract with lefty Marco Gonzales, reports Fancred’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). The contract promises Gonzales a total of $1.9MM despite the fact that Gonzales is still two full years from reaching arbitration. Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that Gonzales will earn $900K in 2019 and $1MM in 2020.

Presumably, then, there’s some type of club option associated with the deal that will give the Seattle organization the right to control at least one of Gonzales’ arbitration seasons at a predetermined rate. Beyond that, it’s not entirely clear why the Mariners would bump Gonzales’ pay to this extent; he earned just north of the league minimum in 2018 and could’ve been given only minimal raises over that sum in both of the next two seasons. While it’s only a minor difference, the Mariners are effectively promising as much as an additional $700-800K with this deal.

Gonzales, 27 in February, emerged in 2018 as a quality rotation piece for a Seattle team that was in desperate need of arms. While some raised an eyebrow when Seattle traded slugging outfield prospect Tyler O’Neill to St. Louis in order to acquire Gonzales, the lefty delivered plenty of value to the Mariners in his first full season with the organization. Through 166 2/3 innings (29 starts), Gonzales pitched to an even 4.00 ERA with 7.8 K/9, 1.7 BB/9, 0.92 HR/9 and a 44.9 percent ground-ball rate.

There’s also yet some reason to believe that Gonzales has more in the tank. His pristine control helped to offset his average strikeout tendencies, prompting metrics like FIP (3.43), xFIP (3.49) and SIERA (3.81) to view his 2018 results even more favorably. Meanwhile, he induced swings on pitches out of the strike zone at a whopping 35.9 percent clip — a mark that ranked fifth in the Majors and trailed only Patrick Corbin, Jacob deGrom, Carlos Carrasco and Miles Mikolas. That speaks to the deception that Gonzales brings to the table and suggests that there could eventually be more strikeouts — or at least more weak contact — in the future for the southpaw.

Mariners Outright Ryan Cook, Justin Grimm

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The Mariners announced Wednesday that right-handers Ryan Cook and Justin Grimm have been sent outright to Triple-A Tacoma after clearing waivers. Both relievers have enough Major League service time to elect free agency and will surely do so. Seattle’s 40-man roster is now at a total of 35 players.

Both Cook and Grimm would’ve been arbitration-eligible this offseason, making the early outright of each player an effective non-tender. Cook was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $1MM, while Grimm was projected at $1.6MM.

Cook, 31, has seen his once-promising career largely derailed by injury issues but returned to the Majors for the first time since 2015 this past season. He allowed 10 runs in 17 innings (including four homers), but he did post a rather impressive 23-to-7 K/BB ratio in that short time. He was also quite impressive in Triple-A, logging a 2.16 ERA, 10.0 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9 in 33 innings.

Grimm, meanwhile, landed with the Mariners after opening the season with the Royals. He allowed just one run in 4 2/3 innings in Seattle but was clobbered for 19 runs in just 12 2/3 innings with the Kansas City organization after previously being released by the Cubs in Spring Training. The 30-year-old Grimm was terrific in his first two season with the Cubs in 2014-15 before seeing his results slip in 2016 and crater in 2017.

Mariners Claim John Andreoli, Select Joey Curletta

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The Mariners have claimed outfielder John Andreoli off waivers from the Orioles, per club announcements. Seattle also added first baseman/outfielder Joey Curletta to its 40-man roster.

Andreoli, 28, debuted in the bigs last year with the Seattle organization before landing with the O’s via waiver claim. That’s now reversed, though it remains to be seen whether he’ll keep his roster spot throughout the winter. Andreoli did not hit much in limited MLB opportunities, but posted a .287/.397/.401 slash in 388 Triple-A plate appearances last year.

As for Curletta, 24, the move will prevent him from achieving minor-league free agency. Primarily a right fielder during his prior minor-league campaigns, Curletta appeared mostly at first base last year at the Double-A level. He ended up posting a career-best output, with a .282/.383/.482 batting line and 23 long balls over 556 plate appearances.

Mariners To Decline Denard Span’s Option

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The Mariners have declined their $12MM option on outfielder Denard Span and will instead pay him a $4MM buyout, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (on Twitter). Span will re-enter free agency and look for a new team with which to spend his 12th big league season.

[Related: Updated Seattle Mariners depth chart]

Span will turn 35 in February but demonstrated in 2018 that he can still produce at an above-average level with the bat. In a total of 501 plate appearances between the Mariners and the Rays, he slashed a combined .261/.341/.419 with 11 homers, 22 doubles and seven triples — good for a 112 OPS+ and wRC+ (essentially indicating that his bat was 12 percent better than a league-average hitter after adjusting for league and home park). He’s not the speedster that he used to be, but Span still swiped nine bags in 13 tries and received positive marks in baserunning, via Fangraphs (+2.4 BsR).

From a defensive standpoint, Span showed his age with a rough season in 2017, which contributed to the Giants’ decision to trade him to the Rays and to Tampa Bay’s decision to move him to left field. Span still didn’t rate as a strong defender in left, though metrics like Defensive Runs Saved (-1), Statcast’s Outs Above Average (-4) and Ultimate Zone Rating (-4.8) all pegged him as only a bit below average in 924 innings there.

With Span out of the picture in Seattle, Ben Gamel is the likeliest internal option to step up as the team’s primary left fielder, though ever-active general manager Jerry Dipoto will undoubtedly be open to making further outfield additions to pair with breakout star right fielder Mitch Haniger. The Mariners could yet elect to move Dee Gordon back to center field, though he’s a vastly better defensive option at second base, and the potential departure of Nelson Cruz could allow the M’s to rotate Robinson Cano and others through the DH spot, with Cano filling in at multiple positions around the infield.

Edgar Martinez Steps Down As Mariners Hitting Coach

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Edgar Martinez has decided to step down from his role as hitting coach with the team, GM Jerry Dipoto announced today. Martinez will remain with the organization in a different capacity.

Martinez, the legendary former DH, is said to have requested a new opportunity within the Seattle organization that would allow “more flexibility” than his former gig. Accordingly, he and the club came up with a new role — organizational hitting advisor — in which he’ll serve as something of a roving instructor at all levels of the organization while also performing “special projects, including one-on-one coaching.”

The veteran slugger, who figures to be a popular Hall-of-Fame candidate this winter, had been the M’s hitting coach for about two-and-a-half seasons. Previously, the M’s had announced that Mel Stottlemyre would not return to his post as pitching coach. Accordingly, the club is now looking to fill two key vacancies on the staff of skipper Scott Servais.

Players Electing Free Agency

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Quite a few players will hit the open market this fall, and they’ll do so by way of varying mechanisms. The end of the regular season triggered a recent wave of free agents, consisting of a certain subset of players — namely, those who were outrighted from 40-man rosters during the season and accepted minor-league assignments at that time despite having the right to elect free agency. Players in that situation are entitled instead to hit the open market at season’s end, if they were not added back to the 40-man roster in the meantime.

As conveyed by Matt Eddy of Baseball America, who also covers quite a few other minor moves, these players have now elected free agency:

Athletics: RHP Raul Alcantara, LHP Danny Coulombe

Blue Jays: RHP Mike Hauschild, INF/OF Darnell Sweeney

Braves: LHP Rex Brothers, RHP Miguel Socolovich

Cardinals: LHP Tyler Lyons

Indians: RHP Evan Marshall, RHP Alexi Ogando

Mariners: RHP Christian Bergman, LHP Ross Detwiler, RHP Mike Morin, INF Zach Vincej

Marlins: OF JB Shuck

Mets: RHP Chris Beck, OF Bryce Brentz, RHP Scott Copeland, OF Matt den Dekker, INF Ty Kelly

Nationals: LHP Tommy Milone, OF Moises Sierra, RHP Carlos Torres

Orioles: RHP Jhan Marinez, INF Luis Sardinas

Padres: OF Matt Szczur

Phillies: INF Trevor Plouffe

Pirates: LHP Buddy Boshers, RHP Casey Sadler, RHP A.J. Schugel

Rangers: C Juan Centeno, LHP Anthony Gose, RHP Drew Hutchison, INF Tommy Joseph, RHP Chris Rowley

Rays: INF Brandon Snyder, RHP Ryan Weber

Reds: C Tim Federowicz, RHP Kevin Quackenbush

Tigers: INF Dixon Machado, RHP Jacob Turner

White Sox: RHP Tyler Danish

Do The Mariners Need A Chemistry Change?

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  • A clubhouse skirmish reportedly involving Jean Segura and Dee Gordon was the most overt sign of how the Mariners’ chemistry seemed to falter alongside the team’s middling record down the stretch, as Seattle faded out of contention.  One of the team’s offseason priorities, TJ Cotterill of the Tacoma News Tribune writes, will be to address whether or not changes need to be made to improve the team’s internal focus and culture.  “I don’t know what comes first — the cart or the horse, winning and clubhouse chemistry, or losing and clubhouse strife,” GM Jerry Dipoto said, noting that some frustration and tension amongst teammates is natural when a team isn’t performing well.
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